Monday, December 18, 2017

I rarely do unboxing videos, but for this product I created the article entitled First Look - Meural Digital Canvas Photo Frame 2.0where I did just that. The reason for this is that I wanted to have a little more bake time with this newest version of the wildly successful Meural Digital Canvas that I first reviewed in August 2016 before I rendered my final verdict on this newest version.

In the first look article you can get an idea of what you get in the box and the frame itself (the Lenora Black in this case), so in this review I'll focus on other relevant points.

Overview - What is a Digital Canvas?

Simply put, this is a dedicated 1080p video display with a low cost computer built in that allows it to talk to my.meural.com. This means that there's a Meural cloud service that is used to keep the files you upload and the settings you set for all of the frames you own. This allows for easy sharing of data between your computer, apps and the frame itself.

My TV can computer can show photos, why is this better?

While it is true that many smart devices such as modern TV's can show photos, the problem is that this is not their primary purpose so displaying photos typically involves a lot of hassle and it's easy to close the app that is playing the slideshow. As a result, this makes these devices - just like your computer - good for a one off slideshow, but not something that is literally living art in your home.

I've bought small digital frames before and they suck, how is this different?

There's an old saying "you get what you pay for" and sadly most small form factor digital displays are just that. They are a horrifically low quality video display and a terrible software experience making them worse than using your TV or computer for displaying photos and the software is so poorly done that most people are usually turning them off within months of purchasing them.

Great for portraits in offices or homes

What makes Meural different is that this is a high quality display, as the price would suggest, with high quality software with the dedicated purpose of making it easy to display your photos and add more from any location that has internet access.

What's more, you aren't limited to your own photos, so add the subscription service and you can enjoy others high quality art for those times when you want to enjoy art that exceeds your own abilities. To see examples of art you can enjoy on your frame, check out the galleries from artists and partners who have licensed work to Meural for use on your frame.

Setup

Device menu displayed via gesture feature

Setup for this device is much like any other IoT device these days - this frame has its own wifi access point that you connect to from your phone, then use the app to setup the device and get it on your local network. Generally speaking, it works just as easy as any other device of this type (like Nest products), which is to say an average user won't have any trouble setting it up. Some beginners may struggle a bit though.

With that said, one of the setup experiences involves using the gesture support on this frame and that's one of the few areas where I don't have good things to say about this product. Simply put, the gesture feature is terrible.

Frequently I found myself flapping like a bird trying to get the gestures to work with roughly a 5% success rate, but fortunately you can completely ignore this feature after you've set up the frame (and even with setup, it's optional).

Hanging the frame

Hanging the frame requires a drill and a hammer and a little patience with the measurements. It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish to hang the frame. While they include a small level with the frame, I still think it's better a real level for better accuracy. I failed to do so when hanging the frame at my parents house and it ended up being slightly off so it drives me crazy.

If you are mindful when hanging, you can set your frame up where it can change orientation from landscape to portrait, which is handy when you get tired of photos of one orientation and you want to mix them up with those of another. I love this feature, so I always make sure I hang my frames in a way that supports both orientations.

Settings

While Meural is constantly improving the settings experience, as of December 2017 here's what they looked like in the web browser:

App Experience

Here's a demo of what you can do using the app using an iPhone (in this case, the iPhone X) with the phone upright for the first part, and the phone in landscape orientation for the second part:

It should be noted that my mom had a iPhone 4s which wasn't supported since the app requires iOS 10 or later, and her phone only supports up to iOS 9. While it is cool to have apps that take advantage of the latest features, I wasn't too happy about a 4 year old phone being unsupported.

Click here to learn more about the requirements of the app on iOS and click here for Android. While the app has features like being able to switch the images in real time, you can also use the web interface from your computer or phone as another option.

I really wish Meural would be more thoughtful about backwards compatibility for phones or make all of the app features redundant in the web interface so owners with older phones would have more options.

Another frustration point is that the app can only control the frame when you are on the same network, so I can't control the frame on behalf of my parents remotely. Since they are both over 80, this is a real bummer as that could be quite useful.

TIP: The weakest link of any connected device is getting it on a networking and keeping it on the network. The Meural frame is no different, but I do find that it loses its network connection more than other devices. When this happens, the best bet is to just unplug and reconnect the frame to its power source and the connection will restore itself. I suspect this is due to the device failing to send the router a keep alive message, so hopefully this is something they will fix in the future.

Controlling the frame from the app demo

Customization

To me the key differentiator of Meural over the competition is the customization that it supports. In addition to the settings shown earlier, the scheduler allows you to pick which play list you display at each hour of the day plus when your frame sleeps. This is a HUGE benefit over all other solutions I've ever tried, and it's the reason why I proudly own three Meural frames.

Here's an example of how you configure this feature from the web browser (only):

There's a drag and drop interface for choosing which playlist you'd like to display on the frame at any given hour. Once you drop it on the frame you can drag it have it span multiple hours as I've done with the 78 image "portraits" playlist. You can also have it randomly choose play lists for part of the day and fixed playlists for other parts. Finally, you can specify which hours the frame sleeps which is my favorite feature as I don't want my frame running at night.

For simplicity sake, I've only shown two playlists here but it supports as many playlists as you've downloaded to your frame. You can also avoid this altogether and turn on "Playlist Rotation" and "Canvas goes completely dark" (shown earlier) if you want the frame to be more hands off and make those decisions for you.

This is the game changer feature that I can't live without!

Frame & Display Quality Thoughts

The display used in this frame is a good quality 1920 x 1080 (1080p) full HD display that resolves to 100 pixels per inch, and it features a matte finish to avoid reflections. Since it is calibrated nicely from the factory, this results in a very pleasant viewing experience that often times can fool novices into thinking they are looking at a framed print.

For those who do frame prints, the size feels about the same as a 13x19" print, so it's big enough to enjoy but not obnoxiously large. When viewing images in landscape orientation it feels just right for most things, but busy scenes viewed at distances greater than 16 feet can feel a bit on the small side (duh). However, in portrait mode I found that most images felt quite large and enjoyable, but that could also be since I get up close on my portraits so the images are larger than life size.

The frame itself features a nice wooden frame white a white matting that feels very professionally done. As a result, it doesn't feel like a cheap digital frame but instead like a print that you had framed. This is why I think I often get the reaction from guests who so say "I didn't realize that was digital" after they see the image change for the first time.

As previously mentioned, the gesture support is terrible so I consider it a non-feature. In fact, for my parents I had to effectively disable it as they would sometimes accidentally activate it which stressed them out.

I've owned my first version for over a year and heat has never been a problem. It's always cool to the touch, unlike my TV, so that's a good sign that it's using a lot less electricity too. This is one of the big benefits of this solution over a computer or TV used to display your images because I haven't noticed any impact on my electricity bill while running this frame for 16 hours a day for the last 16 months! My room doesn't feel like a sauna either like it does when I'm done watching a long movie.

New for 2.0 - the sleep button

Meural 2.0 Sleep Button

One great new feature for the 2.0 version is the sleep button. This allows you to push a physical button on the side of the frame to put it to sleep. Push it again and you get instant wake up - much like open and closing a Macbook Pro.

But why isn't it 4k?

4k is great, but it also comes at a premium price both in terms of the display cost as well as the the bandwidth and storage needed to transmit photos back and forth. While I'm sure there will be a day in the future when I'm bragging about the 4k Meural, I've found that at this size I don't have any concerns about resolution at normal viewing distances (and I'm a master printer and display expert) . A typical billboard is 15 dots per inch and a magazine which has a closer viewing distance is often 150 dots per inch, so this is a good trade off for price versus performance.

What about Momento?

Yes, I've heard of Momento Smart Frame (B&H & Amazon), but the software is optimized around the mobile photo experience with a lack end to end thought. It's also very cheaply built, so it doesn't have the same quality as a Meural. It's promising given its price point, but at this time I have to say it's poor hardware and software experience by comparison. I've also had a terrible experience trying to reach anyone at this company, so I've been reluctant to invest in one for fear that it would be the same experience as I've had with all of the cheap frames that have disappointed me in the past.

What about the optional subscription service?

I hate subscription services, and that's putting it very politely. This is why I'm happy to report that Meural doesn't require you use their service. What the service provides you is access to their gallery of curated art to display on your frame which for some may be preferable to their own images - especially businesses. However, that's a value added feature and not a required service.

While the galleries from artists and partners offer a lot of great images, some of which I enjoy on my frame despite my photography background, you aren't forced to use it so don't worry. I do recommend you try it out though as I've found some of the images are quite spectacular like the ones from 1x. You could never legally license these photos yourself at this price, so it's a good deal to get this many images at this price.

Conclusion

The Meural frame is the first and only digital frame that I can say that I've truly enjoyed. It has all of the features that I've wished for and its continuous improvement shows a commitment to make it even better for existing owners. My 1.0 frame has all of the software benefits of the 2.0, yet it didn't cost a penny to get those upgrades.

I also have found it to be a profound life changing experience for myself and my family members to enjoy hundreds of digital photos changing on the wall of my home (and my parents). There's no way I could display that many prints, so a lot of touching family photos can be enjoyed at no additional cost. What's more, I have no hesitation to include "bad" photos that I'd never print, but put a smile on our faces nevertheless.

While the first version was good, it felt like a product in progress from a start up. The bones were good and mine still works fine, but this newest version feels a lot more polished. I also had a unit shipped from the East coast to my house and then I shipped it to my parents place in Texas. Despite this the original packaging (shown here) kept the frame safe for thousands of miles of travel.

Simply put, there's no better way to enjoy your investment in photography than to display your photos on a Meural Digital Canvas. As a result, I can easily give it my highest recommendation for anyone who enjoys viewing meaningful photos. It's also a no brainer for my 2017 ronmartblog.com Product of the Year.

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this. While I have purchased a 2.0 frame, I was also provided with one for review purposes. I also am a featured artist for images found in the subscription based service as part of a research experiment for a future idea that I have for this blog.

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